I was thinking of raising chickens for meat this year as we don't have a great deal of chicken available and I do like chicken, makes a change from pork anyway. Does anyone know which breed of hens are good for meat and where to get them from?

there are some quite good breeds for meat and some decent allrounders to give you eggs and meet

White Cornish or White plymouth rock are great for meat they grow fast so the meat is tender because its young ,

and if you can get a cross between these then best of both worlds .

Plymouth Rocks, Sussex, and Wyandottes are good for both meat and eggs

As you say getting hold of them is your main probblem ,i know several breeders that use Ebay will send them abroad as eggs ready for incubation ,perhaps this would be an option if you could rig up an incubator or borrow a broody hen from a neighbour

Thanks MOS. Will look into that whey I get back from my hols . I was thinking of buying an incubator so that we can concentrate on getting eggs for hatching rather than trying to sort out broody hens etc.

They do have agricultural fairs Rosie here in Latvia but they tend to be during the summer which is a bit late and they don't sell live animals most of the time in the local markets. I might have to look at a large market sometime but that takes a lot of planning and I am not sure what breeds there are. We did go to one fair during the summer this year and I wouldn't have said that there were any meat breeds on show. Fancy breeds and egg layers, yes! But meat breeds no! They tended to look on the small side really. Plenty of quails but I could get them from a local farmer anyway.